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CM3131 - APPLICATIONS OF PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY

Academic Year 23/24 - Semester 1

Assessments:​

  • In-class quizzes, PollEv: 5%

  • Weekly short online quizzes: 10%

  • Homework assignments: 25% (5% x 5)

  • In-class tests: 60% (30% x 2)

Lecturer: A/P Adrian Lee & Asst Prof Winston Zhao

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Course Overview: 

  • Statistical thermodynamics, Chemical kinetics, Computational chemistry, Photochemistry, Biophysical chemistry, Liquids, solids and interfaces

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Difficulty of the course: Very Difficult

Pace of the course: Too Fast

Duration provided to prepare for tutorials: 5-7 Days

Workload of Course (Average number of actual hours spent per week)

​To learn the content: 5 hours

To complete assignments: 5 hours

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REVIEW

What advice would you give to someone considering to take this course?

 

Anonymous: This was the first iteration of the module and it looks like Prof Adrian will likely make many small edits to the content and sequence of lessons according to student feedback this semester. But, this semester, this was a high workload course with multiple homeworks, tutorials, weekly quizzes etc. The content was covered very quickly and sometimes you were assumed to have the pre-requisite knowledge for certain topics (which may not be the case due to the inconsistent syllabus for CM2133 in AY21/22 and AY22/23). So spend time revising material, go for consults if necessary (both profs are very open to having consults and office hours sessions). Also learn some math tricks to make calculations faster during finals (e.g. saving commonly used constants in your calculator, learn how to convert from wavenumbers to Joules/hartrees quickly, pattern recognition for derivation questions).

 

What did you enjoy or find most useful from this course?

 

Anonymous: Many useful parts actually. Because this is more of a breadth rather than depth course, there is bound to be something you will be using for future courses/work/research. Most commonly used concepts that are taught are MM kinetics (for chemical biologists), QM & Huckel theory (for computational chemists), fluorescence (for materials chemists).

 

What aspects of the course did you find most challenging, and why?

 

Anonymous: The large number of tasks we had to complete, some of the homework assignments were pretty difficult. being able to discuss with friends makes things a lot easier.

 

What resources did you find most helpful in helping you better understand the course material?

 

Anonymous: Not much. Lectures are pretty comprehensive. make sure you understand everything in lecture for midterms and finals.

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